Counter Accusations From China On Cyber Warfare

China has claimed to be the victim of over half a million cyber attacks following speculation that the country may have been subjecting global organisations to sustained cyber attacks

Ongoing accusations that China has been conducting cyber espionage campaigns has culminated in China claiming yesterday that it too has been victim of 500,000 cyber attacks over the past year, with 14.7 per cent of the hacks tracing back to US IP addresses, and eight per cent appearing to have originated from India.

Ross Brewer, vice president and managing director for international markets, LogRhythm, has made the following comments:

“China’s announcement should come as no surprise given the suspicious climate of cyber espionage currently gripping governments. China has undoubtedly received most of the blame for hacking activity targeted at other governments worldwide, with the US, France, Canada and the UK all having recently claimed they were victims of Chinese cyber attacks. The Chinese government has also denied involvement in a cyber attack aimed at 72 organisations including government bodies, recently uncovered by McAfee. These issues are laying the foundations for increasingly retaliatory behaviour – which threatens the security of everyone.”

Yesterday the Hong Kong stock exchange was also hacked, forcing the suspension of trading of seven companies. In a volatile economic environment, both national and economic security increasingly depends on the ability to detect threats and respond in real time.

Brewer continued, “Events over the last couple of years have proved that we are now engaged in ongoing cyber warfare that is not likely to abate anytime soon. So called hacktivist activity, Advanced Persistent Threats like Stuxnet, and the big data issues faced by all organisations are creating new challenges that many are unprepared for. Defending data now depends on developing an understanding of systems that allows threats to be identified as and when they occur. This requires centralised, automated systems that can collect and analyse 100 per cent of the log data generated by IT networks. Only this approach can provide the traceability required to identify attacks when they occur and respond appropriately to minimise any threat to national and economic security.”